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Golden Tate: Benching ‘lit a fire under my tail’

Golden Tate delivered an "I'm not dead!" performance to remember on Sunday.

Golden Tate: Benching 'lit a fire under my tail'

The Lions wide receiver finished with eight catches for 165 yards and a touchdown in a 31-28 win over the Rams, easily his best performance in what had been a lost season through five weeks.

Tate looked like he was having some fun, too. His cheap nike nfl jerseys wholesale and fourth-quarter score came loaded with two great visuals: Tate impressively located an end zone camera just as he reached pay dirt, then took part in a celebration dance with the Lions cheerleaders.

Blair Walsh opened the door for the Lions. Matthew Stafford and Golden Tate kicked it down.

Well, it was Matt Prater jersey who used his foot successfully in crunch time. But Stafford and Tate were the duo that made the Lions' offensive engine run, especially in overtime.

After connecting with Tate on nearly half of his completions in regulation, Stafford turned to the former Golden Domer for the play that would decide the contest and send Detroit home with a stunning victory. The quarterback found Tate on a deep out on third-and-8 in overtime, where Tate caught the ball and melted the faces of Minnesotans everywhere. Just ... just watch cheap nfl nike jerseys wholesale.

There's the balance to deke one defender (whiff, there goes Xavier Rhodes, diving into sideline oblivion), the disrespectful forearm shiver to banish Pro Bowl safety Harrison Smith to the turf, and the side flip celebration that was so rudely interrupted, but not ruined by Andrew Sendejo. The play capped an 11-catch, 79-yard day for Tate, who deserves to walk with his chest out and his head held high for a few days.

"You've got two options: Make a play, or not make a play," Tate said. "Which GT do you want to be with NFL jersey wholesale china?"

In Week 4, Tate caught one pass for one measly yard -- his lowest outing since 2012. In the first four games of the season, he had just 14 receptions for 95 yards, with zero touchdowns. The benching came after a missed signal caused a Matthew Stafford interception, taking possible points off the board.

In Week 5, Tate's stats weren't much better: Three receptions, 39 yards. But that included a huge 27-yard catch-and-run that set up the winning field goal.

Since that spark, Tate has been on fire.

The 5-foot-10 wideout caught eight passes for a career-high 165 yards and a touchdown against Los Angeles. He followed that up with a 93-yard, six-catch performance against Washington. The Lions have won three straight to pull to 4-3.

"(The Chicago game) kind of lit a fire under my tail a little bit," he said. "I had to dig deep a little bit. I had to soul search and think about some things. But it just came down to one thing for me -- be confident in who I am as a player, work my tail off and control what I can control. And that's when the ball is thrown my way, make something happen."

Tate's emergence the past two weeks has helped Matthew Stafford jersey vault up the QB power rankings. With an injured, talent-poor defense, Detroit needs Tate and the offense to continue clicking on all cylinders if it wants to keep pace with other playoff teams in the NFC.